Гранат кислее, чем мандарин, но моей подруге нравится именно такой вкус.

Yes — here гранат clearly means pomegranate.

Russian гранат can mean:

• pomegranate (the fruit)
• grenade

Context tells you which one is meant. Since the sentence compares it to мандарин and talks about taste, it must be the fruit.

Кислее means more sour.

It is the comparative form of кислый = sour. In Russian, many adjectives form the comparative with a special ending instead of using a separate word like more.

So:

• кислый = sour
• кислее = more sour / sourer

This is very natural in Russian. You can also sometimes use более кислый = more sour, but in a simple comparison like this, кислее is the more normal choice.

After чем in a comparison, Russian commonly uses the noun in the nominative:

• Гранат кислее, чем мандарин.

So мандарин stays in its base form.

There is also another common comparison pattern without чем, where the second noun goes into the genitive:

• Гранат кислее мандарина.

Both mean the same thing:

• The pomegranate is more sour than the mandarin.

So:

• кислее, чем мандарин = comparison with чем
• кислее мандарина = comparison without чем

Моей подруге is dative singular.

That is because the verb нравиться works differently from English to like. In Russian, the person who experiences the liking is put in the dative.

So:

• моя подруга = my female friend
• моей подруге = to my female friend

Literally, the structure is something like:

• To my friend, this taste is pleasing.

That is why you get моей подруге нравится...

Because the grammatical subject is вкус, which is singular.

In Russian, with нравиться, the thing that is liked is the subject of the verb.

Here:

• моей подруге = to my friend
• нравится = is pleasing
• именно такой вкус = exactly that kind of taste

So the verb agrees with вкус:

• вкус is singular → нравится
• if it were plural, you would use нравятся

For example:

• Моей подруге нравится этот вкус. = My friend likes this taste.
• Моей подруге нравятся эти фрукты. = My friend likes these fruits.

Именно adds emphasis. It means something like:

• exactly
• precisely
• specifically

So:

• нравится именно такой вкус

means not just she likes that kind of taste, but she likes exactly that kind of taste.

It highlights that this particular quality — the sourness just mentioned — is the one she likes.

Такой вкус means:

• that kind of taste
• a taste like that
• such a taste

The word такой points back to the taste just described — in this case, the sour taste of pomegranate compared with mandarin.

So:

• вкус = taste / flavor
• такой вкус = that kind of taste

Without такой, the sentence would be less specific. Такой connects the second half of the sentence to the comparison in the first half.

Because такой has to agree with вкус.

Вкус is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the matching form is такой.

Compare:

• такой вкус = such a taste
• такая книга = such a book
• такое яблоко = such an apple
• такие фрукты = such fruits

Yes, it could be different. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order.

This version is very natural:

• моей подруге нравится именно такой вкус

It presents:

1. the person affected (моей подруге)
2. the verb (нравится)
3. the thing liked, with emphasis (именно такой вкус)

You could also say:

• Но именно такой вкус нравится моей подруге.

That puts more focus on именно такой вкус.

So the word order can change for emphasis, but the meaning stays basically the same.

Because Russian has no articles.

Russian does not have direct equivalents of English a/an and the. Whether something is definite or indefinite is usually understood from context.

So:

• Гранат can mean a pomegranate or the pomegranate
• мандарин can mean a mandarin or the mandarin
• вкус can mean a taste, the taste, or just taste/flavor in a general sense

The exact interpretation comes from the situation and the overall meaning of the sentence.